Disney Star Stands With Striking Writers

In 2013, Disney released one of its most successful animated films of all time — Frozen. Fans couldn’t get enough of Princess Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff, Olaf the Snowman, and Sven the Reindeer. It’s been a decade since the original film came out, and it remains more popular than ever. Frozen starred Idina Menzel as Elsa, Kristen Bell as Anna, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, and Josh Gad as Olaf. The film’s success launched a number of spinoffs, including Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, Olaf Presents, and Frozen Ever After. A sequel film was also released in 2019.

Since he voiced Olaf in Frozen, Josh Gad has become a huge part of the Disney family. In addition to voicing Olaf in multiple Frozen projects, Gad also portrayed LeFou in the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Gad has always been outspoken about the characters he plays in relation to his beliefs. He even once said that Disney could have gone further with LeFou, instead of a quick insinuation that the character was gay.

And now, Gad is being outspoken once again. On May 2, the Writers Guild of America announced that its more an 11,000 writers were going on strike. Hollywood came to a grinding halt. The writers are still on strike, with many Hollywood bigwigs standing with them. Gad is one of those people. He recently shared a picture of himself on the picket line.

In line with the folks who make the magic. Both of these men literally wrote the words that came out of my mouth on two different series: “1600 Penn” & “Central Park.” It’s writers like ⁦@MikeRoyce⁩ & ⁦@sanjayshah who provide the blueprint for everything that follows

In line with the folks who make the magic. Both of these men literally wrote the words that came out of my mouth on two different series: “1600 Penn” & “Central Park.” It’s writers like ⁦@MikeRoyce⁩ & ⁦@sanjayshah⁩ who provide the blueprint for everything that follows pic.twitter.com/H2pDI2snd0

— Josh Gad (@joshgad) May 3, 2023

Gad later shared another photo from the picket lines, with a sign that said he was an “out-of-work actor looking for work.”

Got scripts?

Got scripts? pic.twitter.com/PmSbY0ExdM

— Josh Gad (@joshgad) May 12, 2023

Hollywood’s writers have been on strike for nearly two weeks, and they are showing no signs of backing down. The writers are claiming that studios — including Disney — are paying them less due to the increase in shows created for streaming. Streaming shows have fewer episodes than traditional network shows, which is reducing writers’ pay by a significant amount.